Monday, November 26, 2012

Mary: "Excuse me, but there's a Dr. Fuchs on the phone. He says he's a radiologist, and needs to speak with you urgently."

Dr. Grumpy: "Okay" (looks at patient and starts to pick up phone) "Excuse me for a sec... Hello, this is Ibee Grumpy."

Dr. Fuchs: "Hi, this is Roy Fuchs, I'm a radiologist in north Grumpyville."

Dr. Grumpy: "What can I do for you? Is one of my patients at your place?"

Dr. Fuchs: "Not yet, but that's why I'm calling you. My brother Luke, who's also a radiologist, and I just bought a used MRI and have set up our own imaging facility. I was wondering if I could come by your office in a few minutes to give you some info about it."

Dr. Grumpy: "I'm booked up with patients today, and..."

Dr. Fuchs: "I'm sure they won't mind waiting a little longer, knowing that your time hearing about our MRI is in their best interests."

Dr. Grumpy: "Wait... but you told my staff you needed to talk to me urgently?"

Dr. Fuchs: "Well, I'm on my way to your area, and thought you'd want to know about our facility before you order any more studies. So what do you say? Can I get you something from Starbucks?"

24 comments:

Is this a common reason why doctors are running super late all the time, because they're listening to sales pitches from Dr. Fuchs or perhaps spending time with eye candy pharmacy rep?

I shadowed an obgyn once who was booked solid with patients, managed to spend adequate time with each of them, and was no more than 5 minutes late at one point. I was in awe of her efficiency and ability to switch gears so quickly.

I totally don't mind if a doctor is running late due to helping someone with a complex problem or unusual emergency situation. Hey, it happens and if the tables were turned I'd want my doctor to focus his needed attention on my situation.

But...to be left waiting in a gown on the butcher paper in the exam room because of a sales pitch would be completely unacceptable. Please tell me this isn't a common practice.

Hi, my name is Moose. I just bought a used orange tabby cat. I'm on my way to your neighborhood to introduce him around. I'm sure you and your patients will benefit from meeting my orange tabby, he's a really nice and friendly animal, and he's key to the future health of your patients. Why, you won't find a better cat scan in all of north Grumpyville.

I think assholes like this make doctors run late. Then the patients have to wait and wait, and then by the time they get to the pharmacy to get a new script they're on wait-overload and that's why they give pharmacists such a bad time when we ask them to wait a few minutes for their prescriptions. Then pharmacists like me get all pissed off and blog about it. That's what I think.

In the clinic where I used to work, my physician partner had sales people calling on him all the time. I'd usually meet with the vaccine people, but that was it. I hated it! Hello, you have a captive market here, a PNP with patients who need vaccines. I didn't see the need to talk with them. He lived for all the sucking up and free crap, lunches and dinners from the reps.

What 'Dr. Fuchs' didn't tell you is that (s/)he has a PhD in visual fine arts and used to be a radiology technician xraying containers for US Customs and Border Protection. Don't wait to take advantage of this limited-time offer! You can imagine how honest the caller is about their product offerings...

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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